Ready the Troops
by The-Queen-of-Fantasy
Summary: Rebbecca is a fierce tough roman camper. Maddie is a bubbly newly-found greek demigod. What happens when these two girls' worlds clash? Can they set things right and maybe even meet some cute boys along the way? Nico/oc Percy/oc
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys. I'm back. sorry about cancelling the other story. But i have been wanting to do a "Son of Neptune" story for a while. I know you hate waiting for the book so here's my version. P.S. in case you were wondering my friend helps me with ideas and such for these stories in exchange for me putting her in them so that's why there are two main characters. Enjoy!**

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><p>Hey my name is Maddie. I am from Olympia, Washington. I have wavy short blonde hair and blue green. I'm not a midget, but I'm not exactly a towering giant either. I'm just average.<p>

"Dad I'm home!" I called as I walked through the door to our apartment. It is just us. It got kind of lonely sometimes but I didn't mind. I found ways to entertain myself when I got super bored. I threw my backpack on the sofa and walked over to his desk area.

"Hey, sweetie. How was school today?" He asked not looking up from his work. "Normal. I think I failed yet another test in math." "Well as long as you tried your hardest." That's one thing I love about my dad he was so care free. He understood my problems and didn't ride my butt to keep my grades up.

I ran into my colorful room and changed into a swimsuit with a polka dotted tank over it and swim shorts. I ran out of my room with my beach bag and told my dad where I was going. I was very lucky because our apartment building was right next to a river just big enough for me to swim in. It was clean as well so I spent a lot of my time here.

I walked down and stripped of my tank top. I jumped in and let the cold water wash over my skin. School was coming to a close soon. I only had to endure a couple more days of torture before summer got here. I swam around until I was good and puny. Only then did I drag myself out.

Just as I was drying myself off with the towel I had brought in my bag, something shiny caught my eye by the edge of the water. I stooped down to pick it up in my hand. It was a glass ball. It had symbols carved onto the side in a very odd manner. The symbols were- a lightning bolt, a trident, and a skull. Inside the glass ball were three things that coincided with each symbol. They were- electricity, water and pure darkness. It was pretty cool looking so I tossed it into my bag and pulled my top on/. I made my way back home.

I walked of my room and tossed my bag on the bed. I then decided to take a shower because my hair felt icky from the water. I ran the water over myself briefly before hopping out and throwing on my PJ's. They consisted of a baggy t-shirt and Nike shorts. I grabbed my beach bag and moved it to the floor. When I tossed it down the glass orb rolled out.

It had an eerie glow to it. I picked it up curiously to examine it closer. I could see the insides churning. Then all of a sudden it flashed brightly momentarily blinding me.

When my eyes came back into focus there were two people standing in front of me. One was a girl with curly hair pulled up into a ponytail. She was a little taller than me and very athletic in her shorts and orange t-shirt. The other person was a boy with shaggy black hair. He wore all black and looked scary and sad at the same time.

"Um hello." I said weakly. "Would you mind telling me what you are doing in my room?" I was trying to remain as calm as possible. "We shadow travelled once we were able to pick up the orb's location." The dark boy stated simply. "Ok. Two questions. One. What is shadow travelling? And two. "Why do you want this thingamabob?"

"It is vital to our mission." The girl said glancing between the ball and I. "and shadow traveling would be difficult to explain to a mortal." She continued.

"You say mortal like you're not. That's crazy right?" I smiled but it quickly faded when I saw their expressions. "What are you then?" They didn't get the chance to answer because my dad yelled my name in terror from the living room followed by a large crash.

I ran to the den and saw my dad backed up against the wall with the biggest most terrifying spider I have ever seen in my life. I heard the strangers following closely behind me.

Without thinking, I grabbed the first thing within reach which sadly was a spoon. I ran in front of my dad with shaking hands. They were shaking so hard I dropped it. "oops." I said nervously. The spider took a step forward with one of its 8 gross looking legs. "I'm warning you giant spidery thing. I know kung fu." It cocked its head. I raise my hands and one leg in what I had seen used as a threatening pose. Then I tripped. "Whoa! Just kidding I lied." I momentarily wondered why I bothered talking to the spider when it clearly could not understand me.

Just then the spider turned to dust. Boy was standing behind it with his sword still pointed dangerously. Girl was just frozen in horror. "I could have handled it." I told the boy even though on the inside I was screaming thanks. "Sure." He said rolling his eyes and moving to talk to my dad. "Sir who was her mother?" my dad raised an eyebrow at him. "Why?" he asked cautiously. "Because it could involve your daughter's safety." "Tell me who are and I will tell you." Boy sheathed his sword and said, "My name is Nico di Angelo and I am a son of Hades. This is an annabeth chase daughter of Athena." He said gesturing to the girl who was still frozen in her place.

"She's usually not like this. It's just…spiders." He whispered the last part. My dad nodded and I was very confused. "Hold on. What the heck is going on?" I interjected.

My dad locked eyes with me. "Honey your mother is the Greek goddess Iris." Well I don't think my mouth could have dropped any lower. "You should come with us and we will explain everything." Nico said. I just stood there dumbstruck.

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><p><strong>While i was writting i had my friend breathing dpwn my neck so please excuse any mistakes you may see or just review and GENTLY tell me. P.S. long review scare me so keep it short and sweet kiddies. <strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**So now here's the Roman camp…enjoy!**

(Rebecca's POV)

"Block! Parry! Lunge! Sidestep!" These and many other of the basic Roman fighting techniques continually ran through my head. My training partner for the day, a girl named Gwendolyn, was (despite her girly name) a daughter of Mars, the god of war; so I was on my toes trying to keep up with her fighting skills.

Just then I saw an opening: she was mid-swing and I could anticipate her next move. So with a few expert swings and a well-placed kick I had Gwen on the ground. I backed off and readied myself for our next round. Unfortunately for me, my success in momentarily defeating her only managed to piss her off. And Gwen is a better fighter than me, so I was in for it. She used her rage to fuel her skills; in 15 seconds she not only had me on the ground, but pinned under my own sword.

Gwen bent down and whispered in my face, "Rebecca, dear, good practice today." Smirking, she let me up. We shook hands and headed off to our cabins to freshen up for lunch.

I had barely walked 20 yards when someone whispered my name right behind me. With the adrenaline from training still coursing through my body, I acted instinctively: whipping around, I drew my sword and took up a defensive stance. Then I quickly sheathed my sword and said, "gods, Percy! How many times do I have to tell you not to startle me right after training? I was fixing to lop your head right off!"

He replied, "Oops. Must've forgotten. Son how'd training go this morning?" "I got my ass kicked my Gwen…again." was my answer. Percy laughed and said, "Note to self: do better in battle training Rebecca, daughter of Athena, the goddess of _battle strategy_!" Punching his arm hard, I retorted, "For the thousandth time, it's Minerva." In response he just grinned stupidly and sauntered off to the training arena. Turning back in the direction of my cabin, I was pensive as I continued walking. Percy and I got to know each other through, well, how could you not know someone living at the same camp as you? I came to this camp about 18 months ago, and 14 months later Percy showed up.

I still remember that day Percy first arrived. He was wearing khaki shorts and an orange t-shirt. He had and still has no memory of his life previous to that day. The only ID on him was his name scrawled on the tag of his shirt.

That same afternoon, Percy was claimed by Neptune, god of the sea (although he kept calling it "Poseidon"). So he had a cabin all to himself. At first he was a little wimp. Knew how to fight, but not at our Roman level. Even some Venus kids beat him a few times! But he's been properly trained and he's better now.

Percy and I see each other in passing throughout every day. Ours is more of a convenience relationship: we get along and we see each other often, so why not be friends? And there is no one taunting, "Oooh you two like each other!" for two reasons: 1) everybody has friends of both sexes, so if you tease someone about their guy- or gal-friend, you've got it coming right back at you 2) to have crushes and show romantic affection is a sign of weakness; and no one dares call another camper weak.

Still deep in thought, I reached my cabin and walked inside. I had only enough time to pull my short, straight, caramel-colored hair into a ponytail before I was dragged out by my half-brother Bobby. I asked, "Bobby, what's wrong?" He explained that 3 new kids had just showed up. When I reminded him that there was nothing wrong with that, he grimly answered, "Rebecca, the guard dragons hissed at them when they approached." My eyes grew wide and now I was the one dragging Bobby to the main pavilion.

When we got there, a huge crowd was already surrounding Lupa, our wolf camp leader, and the three new kids. I stood on the outskirts of the group, between Percy and Bobby. Upon seeing the new kids, the hair on the back of my neck bristled. Y'know that feeling when you get when you can just tell you won't like someone? Yeah, I had that feeling; I disliked them already.

The new kids consisted of 2 girls and a boy: one girl had wavy dirty-blonde hair and clear blue-green eyes; the other girl had curly blonde hair and deep gray eyes; the boy had dark skin and dark features.

Presently, Lupa called for our silence and attention. Like the soldiers-in-training we are, the Roman campers saluted and stood at attention as she spoke. "My fellow Romans, standing before you today are 3 new additions to our group: Madison, Annabeth, and Nico." she said, referring to the blue-eyed girl, the gray-eyed girl, and the dark-featured boy respectively.

While Lupa had been speaking, Bobby leaned over to me and whispered, "Next time I'm gonna stand at attention next to you, would you mind smelling better?" "Hey," I quietly shot back, "I was fixing to shower when _you _dragged me over here." Percy was trying not to laugh at us when our camp director noticed our lack of attention. She called out, "Ms. Fleming, Mr. Jenson, and Mr. Jackson! Thank you for volunteering for tour guide duty." A couple of the Mars kids snickered; "tour guide duty" is not something people want to do. Glaring at the boys beside me, I squared my shoulders and simply relied, "Yes ma'am."

When Lupa was done speaking, she said, "At ease! Back to work." and I knew that that was our cue. So Percy, Bobby, and I approached the 3 newcomers. "If you'll come this was we'll –" I began, but was cut off by Annabeth yelling, "Percy!" and catching him in a flying tackle. "Uh, do I know you?" Percy asked uncertainly. Annabeth replied, "Of course! Do you not –" "Annabeth," Nico sternly interjected, "Not now."

Annabeth and Percy stood up and brushed themselves off. She looked crestfallen, and he just gave me a questioning look. I shrugged my shoulders and was going to say something, but Madison started jumping up and down, saying, "Can we please please _please _start the tour? I wanna see everything in this place! It looks awesome!"

I rolled my eyes (her perkiness was a bit much for me) and replied, "Follow me." So we walked around the whole camp; I showed them everything from the training area and the lake to the weaponry house and the pavilion.

Lastly I showed them the semicircle of cabins. "Since y'all are unclaimed," I explained, "You'll be staying with the Mercury kids for now." But I turned around to see all 3 of them with symbols floating above their heads.

Nico's was a skull, Madison's was a rainbow, and Annabeth's was an owl; Pluto, Iris, and Minerva respectively. Feeling pretty stupid, I said, "Uh, well, you can just put your stuff in your own cabins. Nico, the Pluto cabin is right behind you. Madison, your cabin is to your right. And Annabeth, you can follow me. You'll be staying in my cabin."

Just then Percy said, "Well, it was lovely meeting you ladies. Uh, and Nico too. If you need anything I'll be in the training arena." He flashed his signature dumb-boy smile and I just rolled my eyes. So he and Bobby walked off, leaving me with the new kids. "Drop your bags in your cabins, then we'll head to the tattoo office." I instructed. "Tattoo office?" Annabeth questioned. I replied, "Yeah. When you get claimed, you get an ID tattoo with your godly parent's symbol on it." Madison looked like she was about to drop unconscious. Nico put a comforting hand on her shoulder and said, "It won't take long and the pain won't last." Madison gave him a weak smile and they all went to put their stuff in their cabins.

10 minutes later the 4 of us walked into the tattoo office.

**So far so good? Whatever your feelings are, review\pm me and let me know!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm a back and loving summer vacation. School is finally out. Hope you enjoy the newest chapter. P.S. in case you couldnt guess i am switching back and forth between maddie and rebecca's POV. So just expect that every chapter.**

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><p>"OW!" I gripped Nico's hand harder. I was sitting in a chair getting my tattoo for the roman camp. It would be on the inside of my left forearm. It was to be a rainbow because my mom was Iris; I have to admit that was a bit of a shocker. It had one horizontal stripe under it. The stripe represented how many years you had known you were a demigod.<p>

I had never liked needles in the first place and so tried to distract my mind from the pointy object attacking my arm. I thought back to the trip to the Roman camp with Annabeth and Nico.

(Flashback)

"So why do we have to go all the way to San Francisco?" I complained after two days of traveling.

"_The orb that you found was a gift from Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. A couple of months ago my boyfriend, Percy, disappeared." Annabeth said. "And we need to present the orb to the head of the Roman Camp, Lupa, so that we can be allowed to stay there."_

"_Ok, but why would you…we not be allowed in?" I said still trying to understand._

_Nico picked up that question. "The Romans and Greeks don't exactly get along and we need to show them that not all Greeks are bad so they won't kill the others when they come later on. But they wont know we're Greeks…but still…It's Annabeth's plan. I don't know just go with it."_

_Annabeth gave him a death glare but continued walking. I followed after them. I figured since Annabeth was a daughter of Athena, she knew what she was doing. Nico was quiet, but he was a good listener, which is good considering I do a lot of talking._

_(End Flashback)_

I flexed my arm and poked my new tattoo. Nico and Annabeth had already gotten theirs so we left the tattoo place and walked outside. They walked off towards the direction of their cabins.

I sighed and decided to explore my new home for a bit. I was walking past the weaponry house when a group of burly looking kids stopped me. A rather large girl with a scowl on her face was staring down at me.

"Sup newbie?" She snarled. I beamed. This was the first person here that had actually cared to ask. "I'm great. What about you?" "It was a rhetorical question blondie." She said taking a step towards me. "Actually I'm a dirty blonde. I wish I was a true blonde like you though. Its so much prettier than my dull color." She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly before saying. "PRETTY?" She had a look of disbelief on her face. Hm I thought it was a compliment. Oh well. I shrugged and walked off calling, "Nice to meet you." over my shoulder.

I walked a ways before I noticed the girl, Rebecca, from earlier. She was fighting a dummy. She was pretty amazing. I had no idea how to fight so I walked over to her.

"Hey Becca!" I called waving. She looked at me skeptically as if looking for the easiest way to kill me, probably from the use of the nickname. "You're pretty good. You think you could teach me?" I asked hopefully. She narrowed her eyes but tossed me a spare sword. I struggled to balance the heavy weapon in my small hands.

She took a stance and I did my best to mimic her. "Ready?" She asked. "Wait aren't you gonna teach me anything first?" I asked in disbelief. She smirked. "I believe in learning on the go." My eyes widened in horror as she struck with her sword. This chick was nuts! I blocked her and did my best to avoid getting a limb chopped off.

After a while she disarmed me and held her sword to my throat. I was breathing heavily and Rebecca hadn't even broken a sweat. I gulped and she removed her sword from its lethal position. I sat down hard.

"Is this what you people do all the time?" I asked trying to catch my breath. "Pretty much anything that involves training we do…so yes." She responded twirling around her sword dangerously.

"You don't even have dances and stuff like that to do with your friends and boyfriends?" I asked keeping a safe distance from her and her sword. She whipped around to face me. "Love is a sign of weakness. Crushing means that you have spare time that you could be using to train." She said harshly as she collected the scattered weapons in a pile.

"What about you? Surely there must be someone here you've got your eye on. You cant be that serious about fighting." She had her back facing me and I could see her hands ball up into tight fists. "If I ever fall for someone, it would be my downfall." With that she left in a huff.

I was originally going to try and be friends with her because she seemed friendly enough yesterday. But it seems as though she didn't want my friendship for some reason. Oh well. I was going to get on her good side if it took all summer. I set to work on the dummies doing my best to imitate the moves I had seen Rebecca use earlier. I wanted to learn, although it was pretty difficult with no one to teach me all by my lonesome.

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><p><strong>DONE! mwahahahah. Yes maddie is a bit of a dumb blonde but not completley.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**I want to thank Artemis-girl123 and DEDEBUG9 for having review this story **

**I want to thank ****ADTR is AWESOME****, Artemis-girl123, ****dfghgfgjhdflvm****, and ****XxXxXxILuvNicoDiAngeloxXxXxX**** for having faved this story**

**And I also want to thank ****NIKEismynamedontwearitoout**** and ****XxXxXxILuvNicoDiAngeloxXxXxX**** for putting this story on their alert list.**

**Y'all are the best!**

I threw myself on my bed and growled at no one in particular. It had been a long time I'd had such a strong negative emotion provoked in me outside of a fight or training. And all by some perky new kid!

My own words echoed in my head: _If I ever get a crush, it'll be my downfall._ Unfortunately, that was already beginning. That girl, Madison, she seemed pretty carefree; controlled by something other than dignity and war.

I felt myself getting angry at her and I had a horrid realization: _I _was jealous of _her_! Me, the strong-willed soldier, jealous of Madison, the ditzy wimp. But the worst of all was when I realized why: she seemed like she was allowing herself to have emotions and the such…

"Why am I jealous if that?" I asked the statue of Minerva in the center of my cabin. I was going to answer my own rhetorical question when I heard rustling in the nearby woods. Since I needed the fresh air anyway, I grabbed my sword (as usual) and went to go see what had caused the noise. Soon after trekking through the dense greenery I saw Percy, in the purple camp t-shirt and jeans, just wandering aimlessly around.

I smiled evilly to myself, preparing to ambush him. Apparently, someone else already had that idea and beat me to it. Annabeth walked straight up behind him and said, "Look sharp, Seaweed Brain." He quickly turned around and his surprise soon turned to annoyance. He asked, "Aren't you one of the new kids? Annabella, was it?" "Annabeth." She said indifferently. Percy shrugged, then leapt back in surprise when she pulled out a sword.

Annabeth gave him no time to react before she swung the sword at his torso with all of her strength. Only because I was already in stealth-mode did I manage not to scream. When I heard a shattering sound, I opened my eyes to see the sword broken into a bazillion pieces and Percy completely unharmed.

I think Percy himself was the most shocked of all. He was clutching his obliques in disbelief. Annabeth quietly said, "Percy, you've got to believe me that I do know you. I can explain what just happened." "You'd better hope you can!" He exploded, "You just tried to freakin' kill me!" She hesitated, the blurted, "Percy, you're invincible! You bathed in the River Styx and now you are immune to harm." Annabeth paused, then continued. "Of course, I _could_ kill you if I really wanted to." she said as she poked a spot at the small of his back. Percy winced and stared at her, not knowing what to believe.

Annabeth continued, "You see these gray hairs right here? Look I have one too." She held up a few gray strands of her own hair and pointed to Percy's. "We got these together." Percy got a very confused look on his face and asked, "On purpose?" "Same lack of brain power." Annabeth responded with the faintest wisp on a smile on her face.

But it disappeared quickly when Percy said, "Well, uh, I still don't know you." and hurried off. Annabeth sighed loudly, then said, "You can come out now." I didn't move. But then she looked right at the bush I was hiding in and remarked, "You're surprisingly not that good at hiding."

Well that ticked me off. I jumped out from the bush and said, "Do not insult my stealth techniques. I hadn't exactly planned to see something I shouldn't." "You're right." she calmly replied, "You shouldn't have seen that." "Well since I did let's have a chat, shall we?" I retorted. Her eyes evaded mine as I asked, "Where are you from? What are you _really_ doing here?" After a few second of silence, I reiterated my questions with more force.

Annabeth finally relented. "Let's just say that we're not from around here and we're on a rescue mission." Ok, so I thought she was gonna totally relent. But I was forgetting that she was my half-sister.

I opened my mouth to say something else, but she held up her hand and continued, "Oh, and don't talk to Percy about this; you weren't supposed to hear it anyway." As she was walking away, I said, ""But he won't remember you anyway." It was Annabeth's turn to get in my face as she said, "What did you say, Rebecca?" I managed to keep my cool as I replied, "Not once has he remembered anything from his previous life, whatever that was. I don't think that it's gonna change." She just stormed off and left me in the middle of the woods. I promised myself to keep an eye on her; I currently had neither respect nor trust for her.

So I, being quite frazzled from my anger, decided to go visit my good friend. As I was approaching the Vulcan cabin, a girl with brown eyes and long red hair came running out. "Hazel! What have you been doing?" I asked of her. She wiped sweat from her brow, but all that did was smear more oil residue on her face. "Becca! I _have_ to show you what we've been working on!"

I followed her inside the cabin and looked and Hazel's latest contraption. It looked like a cross between sonar and satellite equipment on steroids. I grabbed her arm and said, "Hazel, you know we can't have communication devices! It attracts attention from monsters and the like. And as much as we all want that for a challenge, Lupa doesn't want the camp destroyed." Smiling, she replied, "I know that. But this is a long-range detection device. Any approaching foreign weapon will cause this sucker to make a most annoying noise: wamp-wamp-wamp—" "ok, ok, I get it." I said, stopping her from making that unpleasant sound.

After Hazel showed me everything there was to that machine, I visited a couple other friends. I finished off the day by cleaning and organizing my armor and weapons.

**Yay! Now we see some underlying mystery that has to be solved…..**

**Review, my pretties!**


	5. Chapter 5

I felt the sun on my body early the next morning. I opened my eyes and jumped out of bed. I pulled on the purple t-shirt that had been provided and some old faded jeans that had several rips and holes in them. I pulled my short wavy hair up into a high ponytail and bolted out the door. Since I was new here I wouldn't have to train like the others, I was still getting used to things.

So I flew down the rows of cabins until I found Nico's. I knocked on the door repeatedly until the door opened revealing a sleepy Nico with bed head. "What do you want?" He said groggily. "Come on Nico, let's go explore the camp. I want to see what fun stuff they have to do here." I said rapidly. It took him a minute to process what I had said but eventually he responded, "Maddie, I'm tired. Not everyone gets up at the crack of dawn. I'm going back to sleep." He started to shut the door but I jammed my foot in it.

"Come on Nico. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease." I said putting on my best puppy dogface. "Fine ill be out in a minute." He said moving back into the darkness of his cabin. "YES!" I cried in triumph. I would invite Annabeth as well but she had told me yesterday that she would be busy today.

I sat down on the edge of the steps and fiddled with random things until he walked out of his cabin a few minutes later. He was wearing a black t-shirt and dark blue jeans. His shaggy black hair had been tamed. I smiled and grabbed his hand, dragging him off in the direction of a big wall made of rocks.

When we got there he stared at me uncertainly. "Are you sure you want to do this." He asked. "Its kinda difficult." I stared up at the towering wall. "Totally! It looks fun. And as long as you're here to catch me I'll be fine." I said moving to get into the harness. "Uhhhhhhh…sure." Was his only response.

I strapped myself in and started climbing. It was easy enough at first, but as I proceeded upwards it grew increasingly more difficult. Suddenly I heard a hiss over head. I looked up and saw lava rushing down towards me. I heard Nico say something but was a little preoccupied to bother listening. I figured it went something along the lines of, "Move out of the way!"

I got out of its path and barley made it to the top without getting the hair fried off the top of my head. I sat down on the top of the wall staring down at Nico.

He gestured with his hands for me to come back down. I grabbed my line and slid down. Once I was on the ground I unhooked and walked over to him. "Well that was exhilarating." I said catching my breath. He had a look of incredulity on his face. "You are insane to do that on your first day." I shrugged and dragged him over to the lake.

"What now?" he asked slightly annoyed. I tossed him a life jacket. "We are going canoeing. I've always wanted to try it." He stared at the water warily. "Uh water and I don't really get along." "Oh don't be such a baby." I said getting into my canoe and pushing off. He strapped his life vest on and hopped into his own.

We paddled for a while until we were almost at the middle of the lake. "You see it's not so bad Nico." I said looking away from where I was going. "So far." He said looking over to me.

Just then I noticed a jagged rock in the path of his canoe. "Look out!" I called moving to the side of my canoe. He looked forward too late. His boat made contact and there was a crunch before it flipped over. I moved putting all my weight on the side of the canoe to see if I could see him under the water. Bad move on my part because I felt myself tipping sideways.

I fell face first into the water. I swam to the surface coughing up water and saw Nico in a similar position a few yards away. I saw Nico's canoe had a large crack in it. "Nico come and held me turn my canoe over." He swam over and after several failed attempts we finally got it right side up. Nico clambered over the side then helped me in as well.

Once I was on board we both sat there catching our breath for a minute. Finally Nico spoke. "What could possibly go wrong?" he said mocking me. "I didn't say that." I said defensively. "But you were thinking it." I couldn't speak against that. He was right.

"Let's just get back." I said changing the subject and grabbing an oar. He let it drop and started paddling along with me.

The ride back was too quiet so I decided to fill the silence. I started to sing the Hamster Dance song. "De da de da de de doo doo. De da de dee do. De da de de doo doo. De da de de de doo." I felt water splash across my face. I looked up and saw Nico smirking. "What was that for?" I asked accusingly. "I wanted you to shut up." He said simply. I scowled pondering revenge.

We were nearing the shore and Nico stood to get out. Getting an idea, I kicked the back of his knees out from under him causing him to fall backwards into the shallow water. He came up sputtering. I started laughing uncontrollably. I saw his eyes flash with mischief before he moved and flipped the canoe out from under me. I crashed in the water landing on the muddy bottom.

I quickly came to the top. I tried to give Nico a death glare but we both started cracking up laughing. We moved to the shore and got out of the water.

I wrung out my hair and Nico shook his head like a dog causing water to splatter across my face. "Uhg! Nico. Really?" he smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." I couldn't stay mad at the look he was giving me. I smiled to show it was cool.

Just as we got the canoe out of the lake, I heard Rebecca's voice shouting, "Fine then! 2:30 at the arena. Be there!" Nico and I shared a look before running off in the direction it had come from.


	6. Chapter 6

**Important: If you like small duel\battle scenes this chapter is for you!**

**And even if you don't, this chapter is still important…**

My sleep from previous night had been sparse and restless. So I was in a less-than-great mood. Thankfully, my training partner for the day was a sweet Apollo girl named Reyna. Reyna had been very quiet and sensitive ever since her best friend Jason had gone MIA four months ago…Nevertheless, she quickly got me to higher spirits with some energizing and occasionally humorous battle techniques.

Around 12:30, we'd just finished our lunch break. As we walked back toward the training area, I noticed that Annabeth was suiting up for training. And just to try and show her that there were no hard feelings from our little forest-chat (although I was still suspicious of her), I went over and picked out a sword and shield that would fit her properly.

I handed her the sword and she accepted it. But when I tried to hand her the shield, she said, "I have yet to see you use a shield anywhere." "Newbies are required to use them." I explained. "Why?" Annabeth questioned, "Think we're too weak?" I coldly answered, "Well, we haven't figured that out yet."

She was momentarily silent, then asked, "Why are you helping me? I thought cold-hearted soldiers couldn't be friendly." I hesitated before replying, "That's typically how we are around here. But every now and then a situation allows for some leeway." "Really? And here I was thinking you were all mean and such." Annabeth said mockingly. And then she continued, which was a bad idea. "I betcha you're not even half as tough or smart as you think you are."

Ok, so I tried to keep my cool. But somehow she just pushes all the wrong buttons on me. And yes I probably do the same to her. So I decided to make this an event the whole camp could see. I yelled at her, "Fine! 2:30 in the arena! Be there!" I stormed off to my cabin, but not before saying to Reyna, "Supply her with battle armor, would ya?"

Back in the Minerva cabin, I first took a cold shower. Then I put on my own battle armor. For the underclothing there was a red skirt of jersey material and a black tank. Then came my armor: a fitted bronze upper-body plate, a pleated leather over-skirt, and a helmet with the signature red plumes. My gladiator sandals were optional, but I decided to wear them anyway.

As I was finishing strapping on my sandals, Percy burst through the door and said, "Becca, what the hell is going on? What are you doing?" "Annabeth and I are having a duel." I explained. "You can challenge anyone for practice, for fun, or in my case, if you're pissed." Before he could object, I slipped on my helmet, grabbed my sword, and ran out the door. But I did yell over my shoulder, "Percy, you should come watch. It'll be invigorating."

When I got to the arena, there was already a crowd accumulating. I walked in and waited by the entrance gate. Soon Annabeth came strolling in looking pretty identical to me, except for our hair, of course.

We entered the arena and walked to the middle. After shaking hands, Annabeth backed up to prepare her stance. But I motioned for her to come back. "I _would_ say fight to the death," I said, pausing dramatically to lower the visor on my helmet, "but that's not allowed here." I had no intention of actually killing her, but a little intimidation couldn't hurt.

I unsheathed my sword; Annabeth did the same. I took my stance; she took a different one. Then we proceeded to circle each other slowly. Finally I got tired of walking around, so I attacked. I delivered blow after blow after blow…yet to my surprise she successfully blocked most of them.

Smiling, I decided to get fancy. I executed a few of my newer moves – those including kicking, jumping, spinning, etc. I could tell that Annabeth knew how to fight, but the majority of it was defense. In any case, she needed it.

After smacking her around for a bit, I got bored. And that was a mistake. I stole a glance at my cabin mates, who were watching intently, and in that time she got a good grip on her sword and advanced. I barely had time to block a swing at my torso, having to resort to defense techniques.

Then I refocused and went all out. As I slowly walked forward I swung harder and harder with my sword. Eventually I pushed Annabeth into the arena wall with my forearm; we were both breathing hard. I spat in her face, "Ego vos fieri." (which, whether she understood it or not, meant "I'm done with you" in Latin) Then, with my helmet in one arm, I walked off.

Percy met me outside the arena. Tired as I was, I still beamed at him when he said, "Glad I wasn't the one fighting you; you would've kicked my ass!" "You better believe it!" I replied, which got me a shove in the arm.

Then Percy said, "I need to ask you about something." I cut him off by asking, "What, now you want to challenge someone to a duel?" He laughed and replied, "Hades no! I'm just confused about something." "It's Pluto." I corrected, "What's your question?"

"Well," he began, "Dakota told me earlier that I should start preparing because Diana is coming by in 3 days. What on earth does that mean?" I thought for a moment, the explained. "Diana is the goddess that periodically passes through this camp. It's a big deal when she comes by, so we have a celebration. She addresses us, then we party…cleanly. Diana never lets us forget that she is and will always remain the maiden goddess. Anyway, check with Dakota on what the guys have to wear."

"Ok thanks." Percy clasped a hand on my shoulder, then walked off. I turned around and headed toward my cabin. Gwen, who was standing a few yards away, started walking with me. "He'd be quite a catch." She said nonchalantly. Glaring at her with my forest green eyes, I said, "Shut up. Do you need something?" "Chill, Becca." She answered. "I just wanted to tell you that the Mars cabin is having a party tonight. Everyone's invited, even the new kids." "I'll be there." was my response.

I continued walking toward my cabin, stopping only once to ask Reyna if she was going to the Mars cabin party. Soon after that I ran into Madison.

**I'm curious to see how I did on that little duel scene. Typically I don't write fighting scenes, but I couldn't resist doing this one. Lemme know how I did!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Party Time!**

I have to admit I thought watching people fight would be stupid and gory, but it was actually pretty fun. Rebecca was amazing and Annabeth did pretty good as well. I didn't know she could fight. I wonder what had caused my two new friends to become so ticked at each other as to cause them to fight.

After the fight was over I had to push against the crowd to find Rebecca and congratulate her for winning. Without warning I felt someone grab hold of my arm. I turned and saw it was the muscular Ares girl from before. "Oh hi..." I trailed off because I didn't get her name last time we talked. "Gwen." She said rolling her eyes in distain.

"Oh sorry. Can I help you?" I said perking up. "I was told to invite you to the gathering in the Mars cabin tonight." "Sounds fun. I'll be there." I said smiling. "Wonderful." she said walking away. I think I detected a hint of sarcasm in her voice but chose to ignore it.

Just then I spotted Rebecca walking in the direction of her cabin. I ran over and bounced to a stop in front of her. "Hey!" I called getting her attention. She looked me up and down and scoffed. "Where have you been all day? I didn't see you around." she inquired. I shrugged. "Nico and I were exploring some of the 'funner' camp activities." I explained.

Her jaw dropped to the ground. "Wait. Let me get this straight. You and Nico?" I nodded and prodded her on. "Alone?" I nodded again. "Goofing off around camp when you could have been training." "Ya." I said giving her a 'duh' look.

She threw her hands in the air. "Good gods! Has no one told you? We are preparing for a war for crying out loud!" "We were just having fun. You should try it sometime." I said gently. She looked ready to explode. "FUN?" she said incredulously. "There is no fun here. There is training and practicing. Now if you want to be a Roman in our legions, I suggest you get your act together and focus."

Harsh much? I'm not even Roman. How dare she. She knew nothing! I could have corrected her right there, but Annabeth had warned me against it. Apparently the Romans weren't too fond of strangers, much less Greeks.

I ground my teeth in order to keep the responses I wanted to say from slipping out. Calming myself slightly I finally managed to say, "Will do." I started to walk off towards my cabin but stopped, remembering why I went to see her in the first place. I turned back to face her. "And by the way, you did great out there." I returned to walking away.

I occupied my hyper active mind with getting my only two siblings, Blake and Courtney, to teach me as much about this camp as possible. I didn't want to screw up again. I wanted to fit in as much as possible even if it was physically impossible with these unfeeling soldiers.

When it finally came time for the 'gathering', as Gwen had call it, my half siblings so kindly informed me we didn't half to wear those hideous purple camp shirts. So I slipped on a flowery greenish top with dark skinny jeans and hot pink converse. My wavy hair was pulled half up leaving my bangs to hang down framing my face.

Once I was ready I followed Blake and Courtney down to the A..., Mars cabin. I'm trying to only use their Roman names, even if it is just in my head. We walked up to a blood red cabin.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of music. I mean, who has a party without blaring loud music, even if they did so lamely call it a gathering. Then again this was a Roman camp and they were seriously hard core.

I scanned the crowd in search of people I knew. I didn't see Annabeth. My guess was she was really pissed about losing the fight and was cooling off in her cabin. Nico was sitting off to the side looking moody as usual. Eventually I spotted Rebecca talking to a girl with long dark brown curly hair. She was pretty except for the tears running down her face and her hazel eyes rimmed in red.

I approached them. "Hi Becca. Who's your friend?" Rebecca eyed me warily. The girl spoke up. "I'm Reyna, daughter of Apollo." She said shaking my hand while drying her eyes with the other. "Madison, daughter of Iris, but you can call me Maddie." I said smiling warmly at her. "You must be new around here. I haven't seen you before." She said offering me a weak smile in return. "Ya. I came here with Annabeth and Nico." She nodded her head understandingly.

She sniffled and wiped her nose. "I'm sorry you have to see me like this. It's just I miss Jason so freakin' much. He was my best friend." I looked to Rebecca for interpretation as to who that was. "Jason was sorta the leader of this camp. He was a son of Jupiter. He vanished about four months ago. She's still pretty upset about it." She explained.

I nodded sympathetically and turned my attention to a burley Ares...oops...Mars boy who was currently dangling a pair of glasses above a little girl's head. The kid was hopping up and down desperately trying to get them away from him. There was a petite girl with long flowing black hair hanging off the Mars kid's arm, encouraging him.

"I thought you said there were no crushes here?" I said turning to Rebecca, indicating to the two with my head. "Oh they don't have a crush on each other. They're relationship is purely for...benefits." She said carefully.

Her reply confused me. "What do you mean?" I asked innocently. "Um they enjoy each other's company to the fullest extent." "Ok." I said dragging out the k. She gave me a look that said, 'You seriously don't get it?' I shrugged. This camp confused me. (A/N - If you don't understand, I'm not explaining. Sorry.)

Just then the burley kid spoke. "Come on kid. If you want the glasses you're gonna have to prove you deserve them." He taunted. "I'm not strong enough Mr. Please." The girl tried to climb up him helplessly.

"He can't do that!" I said in a hushed shout. "Here...it's every man for themselves." Rebecca said obviously unmoved by the scene. I, however, always had a soft spot for kids and before I knew what I was doing, I had moved to place myself between the kid and the older boy.

"Outta my way newbie." The boy said gruffly. "Why do you have to pick on the poor kid just leave her alone." I tried to reason. He snorted and his girlfriend wrinkled her nose in disgust at me. "Does picking on kids 3x's smaller than you make you feel better?" I questioned. "Normally, yes. But I can settle for you." he snarled.

He looked me up and down and it took all my will power not to cover my chest (however tiny it may be). "Are you gonna say something?" I asked, growing antsy. He snarled and looked back at my face. "Where to start? I hear you tried to make friends with my sis Gwen." I nodded. He leaned down so that his hot stinky breath was in my face.

"Well I'll have you know that children of Mars don't befriend perky, wimps who think they belong here but clearly don't." I clenched my fists and tried not to let him get to me. "Why I might even go so far as to say you are as Roman as the Greeks our ancestors defeated all those centuries ago."

I felt tears brimming. He had no idea how right he was. I was weak. I didn't belong amongst the Romans. I was Greek. I heard him burst into laughter at the sight. The entire room was soon filled with laughter, following his. I turned in a circle. I saw Rebecca clutching her stomach she was laughing so hard. Even Nico had a stupid grin on his always frowning face.

Suddenly I couldn't take it. Even my friends were laughing at me. I ran. I sprinted out into the night and towards the forest. I didn't feel like accidentally running into a camper. My insides were fuming with anger. I wasn't crying because I was upset. No. I was mad at the boy, Rebecca, Nico, all the other kids who laughed and especially myself.

I'm not a soppy boohoo kinda girl. I cry when I'm angry mostly because if I don't I'm gonna explode and may end up seriously hurting someone. And I definitely didn't want that.

I finally came to a stop in a clearing. The tears had stopped somewhere along the way leaving nothing to hide my anger. I kicked a tree and stomped around until I felt a little better, meaning I wasn't going to eat the head off the first person I saw.

"Maddie?" I whipped around to find the source of the voice that had spoken from the shadows. Nico stepped forward with a curious look on his face. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Go. Away." I said slowly enunciating each word. He raised his hands up. "Look I just came to apologize. I didn't know you were gonna run outta there like that just because he hurt your feelings."

I gave him an incredulous look. "You think I cried because he insulted me?" He gave me a 'duh' look. "I could have lived with the insults Nico, but when your friends laugh..." I trailed off feeling myself growing angry. He had a dumb look on his face not understanding. "Look, Nico, I think you should just leave." His face fell. "So you're mad at me?"

I bored my blue green eyes into his almost black ones. I didn't respond. I turned away from him. I heard him start to leave, but then I heard him say in a voice I almost didn't hear, "I really am sorry. I would never hurt you on purpose." Then he was gone. My heart dropped to my feet.

All my thoughts and feelings muddled themselves together. But before I could sort anything out I heard a twig snap behind me. I jumped around, thinking it was Nico again. My eyes landed on Rebecca's forest green ones. She froze mid tip toe, I guess in an attempt to be sneaky.

Before I even got the chance to ask her what she wanted, she spoke up. "You're Greek." I froze in panic.

**Coming soon: explanations….**


	8. Chapter 8

**Dun dun dun! Shall we commence the much-needed explanations?**

When Maddie went over to stand up to James, the biggest Mars guy, I was surprised. Did she not know that here it's every (wo)man for him\herself? Nonetheless, the comparison James made between Maddie and the Greeks was quite humorous.

As everyone was laughing, Maddie stormed out teary-eyed. But I wasn't worried. Everyone gets their feelings hurt before they toughen up.

But a little while later, there was something about that little incident that kept bothering my subconscious. Maddie had seemed more mad than sad. Why would she get so puffed up over one incident? Sure, the Greek thing was offensive, but what was she expecting? A compliment?

Then very slowly a realization downed on me. I started piecing together different odd behaviors, certain word slips, etc. With a hunch in my mind that seemed more truthful by the second, I slipped out of the party and strode purposefully into the night.

I searched everywhere for her until all that was left was the forest. I snuck around 'til I could see her in a clearing. She was speaking in low tones to Nico. Soon, Nico walked away, and I silently motioned him toward me. The only thing he said was, "Be careful. She is seriously pissed."

Caring more about proving my hunch at the moment, I quietly snuck up on her until I stepped on a twig. _Rookie mistake…_I thought to myself as I went ahead and walked into her view.

"You're Greek." I said in an accusing-yet-deadpan voice. Her face immediately looked stricken with panic. I smiled inwardly, knowing I'd been right. "Um, no?" Maddie said in an inquisitive tone. Without hesitation I replied, "Yeah you are. You and Nico and Annabeth. Why else would you get so offended at James's comment?" "His name was James? That's nice…" She said in a far-off voice.

"Ugh!" I cried, "Why the hell are you even here? You're too weak to survive!" Maddie surprised me by snapping back, "Well at least I'm not a cold-hearted killer!"

"That's how it is around here." I whispered, my voice tensely quiet. "That's this camp's reputation, every camper's reputation, _my_ reputation." Maddie glared at me, tears of anger once again streaming down her face. Then she spoke. "Your 'reputation' isn't everything."

My voice became louder as I said, "Around here it is. In this camp, this _Roman_ camp, it is. And look where you are." "Even more important than your friend's feelings?" her voice cracked as she spoke.

I had turned to walk away, but when Maddie said that, I got in her face and said in a barely audible voice, "Depends on the situation." I backed up a few feet and cried, "And you would know that if you belonged here. But you don't. You would understand it if you were one of us. But you're not."

Maddie clenched her fists and screamed, "Get away from me!" "Much obliged." I said over my shoulder as I walked away.

The next day Maddie and I acted as if the other was nonexistent. So I had to talk to Annabeth about the whole "Greek" deal.

Annabeth had just gotten back from morning training when I said, "We need to talk." Grabbing her by the wrist, I dragged her outside to behind our cabin. "Don't even try to deny this." I began. "I already confronted Maddie about it and she more or less confirmed it."

Annabeth looked really worried; I guess she thought I was gonna bring up something terrible. But she said, "Ok…what?" I took a deep breath and said nonchalantly, "I know that you, Nico, and Maddie are all Greek."

She opened and closed her mouth a few times before actually speaking. "Yes. Yes we are. How'd you find out?" "Don't worry about that;" I countered, "I want the details of your visit here."

We bickered back and forth about who was gonna tell what; finally it was decided that it'd be better to talk to Lupa about it.

The most Annabeth would allow Lupa to tell me about their mission was that:

They're Greek (duh!)

There's a camp in NYC for Greek demigods (thank goodness they're on the other side of the States)

They'd come in search of someone (if it's not Percy then I'm an aardvark)

They were waiting for people to come (great, more of them)

None of this really pinpointed what I wanted to know, except for the whole "how they knew Percy" deal. And even on that topic I had no real explanation; just confirmation. From then on I kept an even closer eye on the 3 Greek residents of our Roman camp.

The day after I talked to Annabeth, I was eating breakfast when Maddie completely broke protocol and came and sat by me. Before she was ushered off to her own table be Lupa, she managed to say to me, "Rock climbing wall. 15 minutes."

Sure enough, 15 minutes later she and I were face to face beneath the rock climbing wall. Before I could say anything, Maddie began talking. "I've been thinking about what you said. And I case you were wondering, yeah, you were ridiculously harsh. Anyway, no, I'm not one of you. But you know what? I _am_ here. And for reasons unbeknownst to you."

I tried to speak but she help up her hand and continued talking. "By no means am I apologizing. Simply here to call a truce. My personality is bubbles of happiness that hide anger. You have a rigid mask that hides an even harder heart. But to be honest, I do, just as I did in the beginning, still want to be friends with you."

Maddie held out her hand and I shook it. Then she wrapped me in a hug as I just awkwardly patted her back.

Throughout that day and the next, we did just as she wanted: became friends. Not bestest-buddies-of-the-universe, of course, but friends all the same.

**Pretty good, eh? Of course, I won't know unless you review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hiya guys! I'm back with the much-anticipated next installment of my story! **

**Hahaha whatever….**

Well Rebecca is a smarter cookie than I give her credit for. She flippin' figured out I...we were Greek. Dang that girl can add two and two together. Then she goes and insults us! How dare she. I mean, yes, I know I don't belong here but I'm not totally helpless. Well as soon as I master a sword I won't be.

Today I had done my best to stay clear of Rebecca because I'm pretty sure if we talked one of us would snap.

The next morning I had been prepping a little speech at the breakfast table. I couldn't talk to Rebecca here and she certainly wouldn't talk to me out of her own free will. So I sucked it up and moved to her table the second Lupa turned her back. I told her to meet me at the rock wall later. I wanted to get on speaking terms again.

We met up later at the climbing wall. I told her how I felt and that I still wanted us to still be friends. She agreed and it felt good not to be mad at her anyway.

So after that was settled I decided to go to the training area. Upon arrival I noticed that an extremely tall skinny boy with dark blonde hair was practicing alone.

"Where is everyone?" I asked picking up a sword on the lighter side and walking over to him. He looked me over. "Most are preparing for Diana's visit later tonight." I gave him a questioning look. "Who's Diana and why is it important that she's coming?" He gave me a disbelieving look before realization crossed his face.

"Oh that's right. You're new here. Diana is the goddess of the moon and the hunt. She stops by annually. She was the one who was stuck with the job of monitoring the camp." Oh he meant Artemis. "I'm Dakota by the way. Son of Victoria." Nike, my mind translated as he stuck his hand out. "Maddie. Daughter of Iris." I responded shaking his hand.

One thing I loved about my mom was that her name was the same in both Greek and Roman forms. So I didn't have to worry about accidentally messing up. "Wanna spar?" he asked. "I'm not sure. I'm not that good and your mother is the goddess of victory so..." I trailed off. "Come on. I promise to go easy on you." he said smiling. I grinned back and took a stance. He grinned cheekily and launched into a series of attacks at me.

After an hour of practicing I was exhausted. I have to admit Dakota as pretty cool he made training fun. He was probably the most fun camper I had met so far. We both walked out of the truing area breathing hard from the work out. Well mostly me.

"Maddie!" Rebecca said running up breathless. "Oh. I see you've met Dakota." she comment briefly acknowledging him. "Ya he..." I started but she cut me off by grabbing my arm and dragging me away. "We've only got an hour until Diana gets here and you need to get ready." She stated. "Bye." I called apologetically to Dakota over my shoulder. He was just laughing and shaking his head at Rebecca.

She shoved me into my cabin. She pointed to a white dress laid out on my bunk. "Shower. Change into that. Then meet me in the dining pavilion in less than 45 minutes." She left before I could say anything in response.

I obediently got in the shower, washing off all the sweat from my body. Once I was clean and smelling good, I stepped out. I slipped on the white dress. It looked exactly like the classic Roman dresses you saw on movies. V-neck with a fitted waist and the skirt flowing down to the ground. I pulled on the sandals and dried my hair as much as possible.

Once I was ready I stepped out of my cabin. I saw that everyone was in some form of white Roman clothes. I saw Nico walk up. Seeing his attire I fought to hold back a laugh. He looked so out of place. "Not one word." he grumbled. I looked down as we made our way to the dining pavilion.

"I'm sorry Nico." I suddenly burst out. "You're sorry? For what?" He asked taken aback. "For yelling at you the other night." I answered. "You had a reason to." He pointed out. "But you were trying to apologize and I shouldn't have snapped at you." He shrugged it off. "I shouldn't have laughed at you." He admitted.

I smiled up at him. "It's ok. I've moved on and forgiven everyone. And besides everyone eventually laughs at me. I'm a bit of a klutz." I whispered the last part in his ear. Doing so I stopped watching where I was going and stepped in a pot hole.

I squealed and fell to my hands and knees. We locked eyes for a brief second before we simultaneously burst out laughing. Romans in togas were giving us odd looks as they walked past. Nico grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet.

We did our best to calm down before we got to where everyone was waiting for Diana but we still had on stupid grins. "Becca!" I called sighting my friend. She smiled and waved us over to where she was talking to Bobby and another girl.

"You remember Bobby right?" she asked. We both nodded. "And this is Hazel." Rebecca continued motioning to the girl next to her. "Daughter of Vulcan." She said while shaking both of our hands. "Why are you smiling funny?" Bobby asked. We exchanged glances before cracking up laughing again.

Nico managed to say some type of explanation between laugh fits. They all gave us weird looks. Then something caught their eye and they all did some Roman salute thing. I turned holding my breath to stop the laughter.

I caught sight of a girl probably around 18 with a silver bow and arrow on her back. She seemed to be emitting some type of aurora and was walking towards the group of campers gathered.

I looked to Rebecca who mouthed the word, 'Diana.' I stood stark still after that. No way was I going to embarrass myself in front of a goddess. They stopped and talked to some group of suck ups I had noticed. I only knew one. Her name was Bailey and she was a daughter of Venus. She wasn't nice to say the least.

I was getting a little fidgety just standing there. I drummed my fingers against my thigh. I glanced at Rebecca, Bobby, and Hazel. They weren't even blinking. I would have put money on that they weren't breathing either. They looked like statues along with all the others who were not being addressed by Diana at the moment.

Suddenly an ear-splitting siren went off. I cringed and held my ears. Hazel jumped to life. She jumped on a table trying to get everyone's attention. She called the Romans to arms. Everyone chaotically but somehow mechanically ran for weapons. When I saw the HUGE boat flying into view only one thought crossed my mind.

The Greeks were here...

**Surprised? Me too…**


	10. Chapter 10 pt 1

**Confused yet?**

I was very annoyed to have found Maddie and Dakota out practicing so soon to Diana's celebration. So I dragged Maddie away, showed her which clothes to wear, and headed back to my own cabin to get ready.

Annabeth was already there when I arrived. We small-talked for awhile, then she asked me what we wear. "This." I said as I tossed her my spare dress. Annabeth held up the one-shoulder, cinched-waist, floor length white gown and studied it.

"White? Really?" she said. "I know it's so..." I paused, then we said simultaneously, "Impractical." Then we both burst out laughing.

I asked, "And do you want to know the real reason they're white?" Annabeth cocked an eyebrow to let me know she was listening, so I continued. "It's supposed to symbolize the purity of Roman women." She scoffed. "Purity my -" "I know." I said, cutting her off. "I know. It's quite ironic. But hey, I don't make up this stuff."

I proceeded to shower, dry my hair, and slip my dress on. As I was running around doing a few last-minute things and whispering to myself, "Nuper mihi! Nuper mihi!" ("I am late! I am late!"), there was a knock at the door. Being the last one in my cabin, I called out, "Come in or don't, but don't just stand there." I heard the door open and slam shut. Startled by the noise, I whipped around, nearly stabbing myself in the eye with my mascara wand.

Percy stood there, all decked out in the traditional Roman armor as was custom to wear for this event. I made a mental note of how good he looked, then resumed touching up my makeup, teasing, "gods, Percy! How many times are you gonna barge into my cabin like that? I could've been naked that time!"

Glancing at his reflection in the mirror, I saw no change in his stony expression as he said, "I need to talk to you, Rebecca." It got my attention that he used my full first name, so I turned to face him.

Percy asked in a very accusing tone, "Why were you spying on Annabeth and I that day in the woods when she confronted me?" Following my instincts, I used and evasive reply. "What makes you think I was there at all?"

"Don't play dumb with me." he spat. "I heard you and Annabeth talking after I'd walked away. So why were you there in the first place?" "I heard a noise in the woods and went to go check it out. I saw y'all and simply stayed to eavesdrop. Afterwards Annabeth called me out and so we chatted for awhile." I explained. Then I continued, "Why? Do you have something to hide?" in a meaner tone than I intended.

Percy scoffed. "No. I just think you're trying to get into my personal life. Or trying to hide my past from me." I stared at him incredulously. "What the hell is wrong with you? What happened that day was completely unintentional! Why would I _want_ to be in your business?" "I'm done talking about this, Becca." He cut the conversation short. "Just get out of my personal life." And with that he walked out of my cabin.

Slightly humiliated, very confused, but mostly just pissed off, I stalked toward the pavilion where everyone else was gathering. Upon seeing Reyna, Bobby, and Hazel, however, I shoved my emotions down and went to talk to my friends.

After we chatted awhile about the last few times Diana came around, Maddie and Nico walked up. They had really stupid grins on their faces, and Maddie's dress was dirty near the bottom. When Bobby asked them what was so funny, they both burst out laughing, saying something about clumsiness.

Reyna noticed Percy sulking around and asked me, "Percy looks pissed. What's with him?" "I don't know." I replied. "He must just be in a bitchy mood."

Just then Diana called us to attention; we saluted, then she got distracted talking to some other people. Suddenly, a very loud alarm went off. "Wamp-wamp-wamp-wamp-wamp..."

Almost immediately Hazel hiked up her dress and jumped onto a table, yelling, "To arms, Romans, a weapon device of foreign origin is approaching!" In an instant the entire camp was in war-mode. The guys, who were already in armor, went to help Lupa and Diana secure all buildings and prepare the larger weapons.

All the girls rushed to the supply of the only armor we had time to don: leather, corset-backed upper body armor that went from the chest top the waist. It actually looked pretty sexy with the dress, but we weren't exactly worried about that right then.

Then we all ran to the weaponry house and grabbed swords or daggers or bows\arrows or etc. As we were heading back toward the pavilion to rejoin the guys, Maddie said to me, "How do we know that Hazel's machine didn't just have a glitch and the 'threat' isn't real?" "Even if there is no threat," I replied, "we like to be ready."

Then, realizing that Maddie, Nico, and Annabeth were clueless about how to proceed with us, I grabbed Maddie and Annabeth and said, "You guys get Nico and the three of you hide behind the pavilion until this is over and I come get you." Without giving them time to protest, I shoved them to the outskirts of the group and kept walking.

Just then we came into view of the pavilion. My adrenaline kicked in as we took up our battle formations and prepared for whatever was out there. And soon we saw it.

It was a huge ship coming toward our camp from the east; and it was flying! Attached to the huge, gleaming hull were six engines that looked like they could've been hijacked from commercial jets (I found out later that indeed that was the case).

I heard quiet snickers beside me as people were saying, "Who uses bronze anymore?", "Where are the offensive\defensive battle systems on the ship?", "If they were trying for a sneak attack, I don't think flying a ship in the evening was the way to go.", etc. Yes, we can be critical of things that don't meet our standards.

Finally we saw the name of the ship: _Argo II_. Then I felt a hand grip my forearm. I turned to see Annabeth with a panicked expression on her face. "Rebecca, you guys have gotta stop this! That's the –" "Not now." I interjected. "Get back to where you were." Just then Maddie came running up. "Listen to me, Becca! Y'all are making a mistake! You can't –" She tried to talk but I cut her off. "I don't care. Now is not the time. Go, now!"

**Oh no! **

**But never fear, press the "next" button and you'll be able to read the rest.**


	11. Chapter 10 pt 2

**Yes, this is still chp 10. Just the second half. Even I would've skipped half of the chp if it had been its original length.**

Meanwhile, Lupa had just recognized the ship for what it was. "Soldiers!" she yelled in her husky wolf voice. "Stand down!" We all lowered our weapons. Lupa continued, "There is no threat. Your orders are to put away your weapons." We obeyed. Some, like me, sheathed their swords; others slung bows on their backs. The end result was a whole bunch of battle-ready Romans who weren't gonna get to fight. Lots of energy with nowhere for it to go.

When the ship finally landed, the first to exit was a centaur. He immediately walked over to Lupa and they started speaking in low tones. Slowly, the rest of the ship's inhabitants exited in a most unorganized fashion. Just then Reyna gasped and yelled, "Jason!" Sure enough, our MIA camper was walking down that plank. But Reyna's face fell when she saw that Jason was holding hands with a lovely girl.

As soon as I saw the bronze armor and circular shields, I nearly collapsed at the realization. _These are the Greeks!_ Maddie, Nico, and Annabeth ran up and stood next to me with awed expressions. Before they could give me any "I told you so" crap, I said, "We came about _that_ close to turning your friends into bloody piles if demigod carcasses." I spaced my thumb and forefinger about 2mm apart.

Annabeth gave me a cheeky smile and ran to greet some of her friends. Maddie followed so she could introduce herself to everyone. Nico just kinda wandered away.

By now, as you can imagine, we Roman campers are in a huge group huddle, whispering and suspiciously eyeing the intruders. "Romanus Heros!" ("Roman Demigods!") Lupa called. "Yes, these are Greek demigods. All will be explained later." She resumed talking to the centaur. I caught a glimpse of Percy. He looked lost and as if he was trying to remember something.

Then Diana yelled for us to stand at attention. The entire Roman congregation saluted and stood rigidly still. We could feel our audience of Greek demigods watching us intently. Then Diana spoke to us. Her entire speech was in Latin.

"Romani milites mei-in-artibus hoc novitatis nobis. Etiam nesciebam quod Graeci veniret indenuntiatus." ("My Roman soldiers-in-training, this is a new experience for all of us. Even I didn't know the Greeks would be stupid enough to come unannounced.") We all got a laugh out of that, then Diana continued. "Sed Graeci adsunt _et_ agendum ut Romanus sumus. Latine loquor ad invicem. Train in vigor separationis simper tibi ante. Obstupefio tua omnia exacte in disciplina ordine sequentes. Te vitiosum! Vos superbi! Tu Romani!" ("But the Greeks _are_ here, and so we must act like the Romans we are. Speak only in Latin to one another. Train with a vigor unlike any you've had before. Stun all with your discipline and precision in following orders. You are vicious! You are proud! You are Romans!")

That elicited a thundering roar of approval. After we were dismissed by Diana, Lupa and the centaur gathered everyone, Roman or Greek, to the central pavilion. Lupa proceeded to explain why Chiron, the centaur, and the Greek campers were here.

Apparently they were here to untie our two groups against Terra and all her monsters. When I looked around, the look on my fellow campers' faces mirrored mine: "That's bull." It was only when it was explained that Juno\Hera had switched Jason and Percy from their camps and had wiped their memories that it made sense.

The plan was to take the next few days to regroup and gather supplies for a long voyage. That's right, the entire Roman and Greek camps were going to a remote training facility on an island between Italy and Greece.

As soon as Lupa and Chiron were done speaking to us, Maddie came over to me. She was about to say something when James, who was standing next to me, pointed at her and said, "You dirty little sneak! Living in our camp as some undercover agent." (Remember all that energy with nowhere to go?) Annabeth ran up and said, "Hey! It wasn't just her."

"Yeah, we know." Gwen called out. "It was all three of you. And now you bring your little friends in to infiltrate us. What did you call it? Oh yeah, 'uniting' our two groups. " Soon enough, Maddie, Nico, and Annabeth had the entire Roman congregation hurling accusations and insults at them.

I stood there doing nothing for awhile. Just a bystander. But I kept feeling guiltier and guiltier for letting the new kids get harassed. Finally, when I couldn't stand it anymore, I hiked up my dress, got up on the pavilion stage, and yelled for everyone's attention.

"Hey! Everybody just calm down." I began, unsure of where I was going with this. "Listen, I know that we're all pretty pissed 'cause they came to our camp and deceived us all. But y'know what? They were just following orders. And that's something we hold in high esteem. Yes, they brought their little Greek friends along. But come on, nihilne _Romanum_ satis tractare pauci milites Graeci?" ("Are you not _Roman_ enough to handle a few Greeks?") I switched to our native language to bring the point home; sure enough, it was dead silent.

I started to get down, but then stood back up. "But by all means, don't ignore Diana's orders. I'm all for that." I rejoined my peers and we chatted a little while longer. Then it was finally time to turn in for the night.

Yet instead of going to my cabin, I headed over to the lake for some pensive alone time. I'd been sitting on the bank for a few minutes when I heard the faintest rustling a few yards behind me. "If you try to jump me," I said quietly, "I _will_ harm you, Perseus Jackson."

I heard an annoyed sigh and saw out of the corner of my eye Percy sit down next to me. I didn't give him a chance to speak before I said, "So, you're Greek." "Yeah." He replied after awhile. "And listen, Becca, I shouldn't have –" "Don't apologize." I cut him off. "And besides, I also messed up. So let's just call it even."

We smiled at each other, then sat in silence for awhile. Soon u decided that it was time for me to leave. I clasped Percy's shoulder, said, "Night, Percy.", then stood up. As I was walking away, he called, "Hey, Rebecca…" He walked over to me and nervously clasped his hands in front of him

"Yes? Is there something you need to tell me?" I teased. Then he started leaning toward me and the only thing I was thinking was, "Oh crap, oh crap…." Yet I, expecting the harsh and lusty advances typical of a Roman, was surprised when he kissed me once, gently. Then he walked off into the night.

I was feeling quite light and happy until a single question hit me:

Where in the _hell_ did that come from?

**I know it's too cliché for Percy to fall for someone in his new Roman life, but we can't let Annabeth have all the fun… ;)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Sorry for the wait. I'm forgetful.**

The Greeks are here? The Greeks are here! The Greeks are here... Well the Romans had some big long conversation in Latin that I didn't understand one word of. But I could tell the Romans were getting rather worked up.

After Lupa started talking the kid, James, who insulted me the other night, along with Gwen came over to me and accused me of being an undercover agent along with other things. I just bit the inside corner of my cheek and took it. I really had no case as to why they shouldn't. I did sneak in after all. It wasn't my plan or idea, but I did follow it nonetheless. Which still holds me accountable.

All the other Roman campers had joined in, hurling insults and some other not so nice words at us. Suddenly Rebecca jumped up on top of a table and starts defending us. Go her! Friendship rules.

I smiled warmly at her as she swayed the masses. When she finished I didn't even get a chance to thank her, because Nico and Annabeth dragged me over to meet the Greeks.

I met so many people I lost count. I'm already bad at names, so I doubt I'll remember more than a few. Afterwards a centaur walked up to me. "What is your name child?" he asked. "Madison, I'm a daughter of Iris." I responded. He nodded. "I see that." he said gesturing towards my tattoo. I took a sharp breath remembering the pain from it. "I am Chiron, the director of camp Half-Blood in New York City." I shook his hand. "Nice to meet you." I said smiling. "I hope to see you at camp once this is all over." he said.

Afterwards I walked to my cabin and went to sleep. Lupa had ordered the Romans to let the Greeks share cabins. So we now had two extra people. Bob were boys. One was named Brian and the other was named Butch. They were nice enough, but Butch didn't talk much.

Super early the next day Chiron and Lupa called a meeting with all campers to discuss some big prophecy that I had heard nothing about until now. So I walked out of my cabin, still in my monkey PJ pants and baggy T-shirt with bed head. I wonder how many campers I would kill with my bad breath. They couldn't give us five minutes heads up? At least then I wouldn't look like the walking dead.

Speaking of the dead, Nico walked over looking, if it was possible, worse than myself. All the Romans looked; however, wide-awake and decent. How they did it, I was clueless. They were machines! No one spoke as Chiron, Lupa, and a red head girl who he introduced as Rachel Elizabeth Dare, their camp oracle. "Rachel, why don't you tell us the prophecy...again." Chiron said gently nudging her forward.

She took a deep breath then began. "Seven Half-Bloods shall answer the call. To Storm or Fire the world must fall. An oath to keep to final breath. And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death" Lupa stepped forward. "We believe we know who the Demigods mentioned in the prophecy are." she paused for dramatic affect. "Percy." All eyes turned to him. His face was determined. I kind of figured he would be part of this. "Reyna." She set her jaw with a grim expression "Rebecca." She looked a little surprised. I sent her an encouraging smile. "Nico." his sleepy expression vanished. "Annabeth." She seemed a little smug at this. "Piper." She looked slightly afraid. "Maddie." I got greatly confused as my mind slowly processed this.

Then it clicked. I was going on the mission. An incredibly dangerously life threatening mission. "What about Jason?" Bailey, the Venus head councilor, asked. "Jason shall come as well." Lupa answered coolly. "He is the storm part of the prophecy. As Leo is the fire mentioned." They both looked slightly anxious. "I now ask you all to go get ready. We leave in the morning."

Everyone dispersed. I walked to my cabin behind my siblings. The first thing I did was get clean and smelling good. After that I repacked my bags and set out away from my siblings who were getting rather noisy trying to locate their who cares what. I walked over to the lake. It was pretty much deserted since everyone was scrambling around trying to get ready for tomorrow. I rolled my faded jeans up to my knees and sat down, letting my bare feet dangle into the cold water.

"What are you doing out here?" A voice asked behind me. "Getting away from all the chaos and just relaxing." I turned around and saw Nico. He was wearing all black as usual. It suited him rather nicely. He moved to sit next to me but stayed clear of the water. "Nervous?" He asked leaning back on his arms. "About the quest? Only a lot." I admitted. He smiled a little. I went on. "I mean, I barely know how to fight. I only recently found out I'm a Demigod. I've certainly never been on a quest, much less one to save the entire freaking world." I said raising my voice slightly. He shrugged. "You get used to it." I cocked and eyebrow. "And I suppose you've saved the world loads of times." I said sarcastically. But when he just stared at me with his nearly black eyes, I knew he wasn't joking. "You're serious?" "Well it wasn't all me, but I have fought in my fair share of battles to, 'save the world' as you put it."

We fell into silence. I was chewing on my bottom lip in thought. "Is it scary?" I finally asked breaking the silence. "Terrifying." he said staring out at the water. I took a deep breath. "You know you're not really helping calm my nerves." "Who ever said I was trying to?" He said laughingly. I pushed his shoulder. "Shut up."

I stood up dusting off my butt. "I should probably get back. My siblings will want me back by now." I began to walk away but felt his cold hand grab my arm. "Since when do you care what your siblings want?" He asked. I shrugged. "Since I decided I needed to fit in more with these Romans."

"Why would you want to fit in with them? All they are is eat, work, sleep machines." "Because they seem strong. And I felt weak compared to them." "But you aren't Roman, Maddie. And you're not weak. You're Greek. We have different standards than them." He took a step closer. "And what would those be?" I asked staring up at him. "Literature, art, philosophy, architecture, etc." "That sounds pretty lame compared to them. Battle, warfare, armies..." He cut me off. "Will you stop comparing us? Yes we are different. But you know what? We are strong in our own ways. The Greek and Roman Demigods were separated because of our differences. But we are together now."

His eyes were burning. "And you wanna know what else the Romans don't have?" He said cooling off a bit. I looked up at him curiously. He cupped my face and softly brought his lips down to cover mine. He pulled away before I even had time to react, which could have taken a few decades. I'm pretty sure

If I had been hooked up to one of those Neely hospital things it would have a flat line. "That." He said quietly and then was gone.

Well what an interesting day I was having so far. First I get assigned to a hazardous quest and then my friend, who just happened to be a guy, kisses me. And I'm not sure on my feelings on the second one. I like him enough. But do I like him like that? I fingered my lips, where Nico's had been moments before, as I walked back to my cabin in a trance. My siblings were packed and about to head out to train.

I shook myself back to reality and joined them. I would need as much practice as possible and couldn't let Nico distract me. By the time the day was over I was feeling a good deal better about my skills. Not enough to take on Percy or anything, but it would have to do.

That night I couldn't sleep. My mind was racing with the events of today and what was going to happen. We were all gonna start out together and go to some island between Greece and Rome, Italy, but when the time came the 9 of us would split off and to on our separate quest. The others would keep the giants from destroying the gods at their sources.

My ADHD mind was wandering off to when Nico and I had gone canoeing. I smiled at the memory of us falling/being pushed into the water repeatedly. We had had such a blast together. He always managed to make me smile. Even when I made a complete idiot of myself, he was still there.

I sat up almost banging my head on the bunk above me. I jumped out of my bed not caring if I had on my 'I 3 pandas' T-shirt. What was I doing just sitting here? I liked him. I needed to go find and tell him. It was the middle of the night, yes, but Zeus knew he wouldn't be asleep. I crept out of my cabin as quiet as possible. Sneaking out here was a big no no, but right now I didn't give a flippin fladoodle. I walked briskly through the cool night air to his cabin. Once there I forced my hand to knock.

There was a slight pause before the door opens. Nico was wide-awake looking confused at my strange appearance. But before he could say anything I spoke. "I like you." I blurted out quickly before shutting my mouth tightly and waiting for his reaction.

A slow smile crept on to his face. "You already know I like you." My heart jump-started itself back to life. I sighed in relief. "Good. I was hoping this morning wasn't just you're way of proving a point." He took a step closer. "Now why would I do that?" I couldn't answer because of his close proximity. I tried to keep my breathing steady but failed miserably. He closed the gap between us pressing his lips to mine. I melted as I held his jaw kissing him back sweetly.

We pulled back only when oxygen was becoming a concern. He ran his hand through my hair. "You should probably get back before we are both caught." I nodded numbly. Then I kissed his cheek. Improbably let my lips linger a little too long but I couldn't help it. I made it back to my cabin safe and crawled into bed. My mind instantly fell into a serene sleep, momentarily forgetting tomorrow and focusing on the happiness of the moment.

**Phew one more chp to go. Almost done!**


	13. Chapter 13

**I am soooooooooooo sorry for taking so long to get this last chapter out. Between work and swimming and trips and all that other summer stuff, I've barely had time to work on this.**

**A big shout-out thanks to **_**Too tired to log in**_**! All of your reviews were immensely helpful with giving me my inspiration back. **

**Ok, ok, I'll stop babbling now so you can read…**

The day before we left was very hectic. Romans are exact and disciplined and precise in everything we do. Organization is included in that, but only for certain parts. We all know exactly where our armor and weapons are; not so much our personal belongings.

Well, except the Minerva cabin. We are the organized cabin. So once we were done packing our own bags, _everyone_ was asking us to help them pack\locate things. I helped Reyna and Hazel and even Gwen asked for my assistance.

At some point in the day Percy came to me and said, "Hey, could ya come help me out when you have time?" I nodded my head and went off to help the next person. Eventually I made my way over to the Neptune cabin.

I was checking names off my to-help list when I walked in; I only looked up when I closed the door behind me. The room was empty and silent. So I just began putting Percy's things into different piles: clothing, personal items, etc.

I continued working until I heard the bathroom door open. I turned to see Percy standing there in a most curious fashion: basketball shorts, no shirt, toothbrush in his mouth. He was heading for the duffel bag on his bed but stopped when he noticed me in his peripheral vision.

Slowly Percy turned to face me, his eyes wide. Most girls my age, when faced with a shirtless guy (esp. if she knows him), will to some degree modestly avert their eyes. I, however, merely cocked my eyebrow at Percy. In case you're wondering, yes, I was elated at this sight. He became defensive and said, "What? This Greek girl gave me a cookie and it left a bad taste in my mouth." I continued staring at him with a smug expression on my face for a few seconds, then wordlessly turned back to my work.

With an exasperated sigh, Percy finished brushing his teeth, rummaged around in his duffel bag, and came to help me pack his other stuff. But I had other plans.

I barely had time to sadly notice that he had put an undershirt on before I slammed down my clipboard and demanded, "Why'd you kiss me last night?" We stared at each other for a few seconds, then Percy laughed dryly, saying, "I guess it was just a 'heat of the moment' thing." "So you just randomly kissed me because it _felt right_?" I shot back. "Why?" he replied in a taunting voice, "Did you want more?"

At that moment the door opened and Annabeth stuck her head in. "There you are, Percy. I was wondering if –" she stopped when she caught sight of me. She forced a smile and said, "May I speak with Percy alone for a few minutes?" After a slight pause, I answered, "Um, sure." and stepped outside. Then I tiptoed around to the side of the cabin. Crouching beside an open window, I once again found myself eavesdropping on another of Percy and Annabeth's conversations.

"I'm gonna cut straight to the point." Annabeth began. "Now that you know you're Greek, do you remember _anything_ from your life before this? Anything at all?" There was a long pause before Percy replied, "Tidbits of battles and snippets of daily life. That's it." "You don't remember me?" came Annabeth's voice; she sounded choked up.

In response, he inquired, "No, why?" "Damn it, Percy!" she whispered. In a strained, louder voice she continued, "Because I am, I suppose was, your girlfriend." Percy immediately retorted, "My _what_?" "Your girlfriend." Annabeth reiterated. "You and I have been dating for over a year now."

I sat back against the cabin, my mind reeling. Lately I'd been beating myself up for feeling romantic affection for Percy. When I found out he was Greek, that explained some things, but at the same time complicated the situation. And now he has a forgotten girlfriend? Talk about make matters worse.

"So, you and I were dating at the Greek camp. How'd that happen?" Percy asked. Laughing, Annabeth replied, "Well, you and I had many adventures together over a few years' time, so…I guess our good friendship turned to something more." "And you didn't tell me this earlier because…" he dragged out the last syllable.

"Because it might have jeopardized the mission." she answered. Percy heaved a sigh before inquiring, "So how do you want to move forward with this?" "I was thinking we could try to restart that same process." Annabeth cautiously said. "Get to re-know each other, y'know?"

"Uh, I'm cool with the whole re-acquaintanceship deal, but as for the eventually-going-back-to-dating thing…" He trailed off, and she immediately spoke. "What, you don't want to go back to our previous relationship?" Percy's voice grew slightly louder as he said, "Well, I don't know or remember you and in my time here I've been able to meet new people and –"

"Oh, so _that's_ what it is." Annabeth cut in. "You have feelings for someone else." "Yeah, I do." Percy answered. Laughing, he continued, "And that someone else is a girl." Annabeth didn't laugh. Instead, she took a deep breath and said, "For my sake, please, tell me who it is."

Percy hesitated, then mumbled something couldn't understand. Apparently Annabeth couldn't either, because she asked, "What?" He spoke up. "Rebecca. It's Rebecca." Annabeth's voice broke as she said, "Ok. Good night, Percy." Then I heard the door open and close; she was gone.

Well, you can just imagine me at this point. When Percy said my name, I almost cried out. Now I was excitedly awaiting the right time to go back in.

A few minutes after Annabeth left, I dared to knock on Percy's door. His weary voice floated to my ears. "Come in." I obeyed, and as soon as he saw me, he said, "You heard every word, didn't you?" After a slight hesitation, I nodded. "So, do you want to get back to packing or –"

"Look, Becca." Percy cut me off. "I think…I think you should just leave." That hurt, but I knew I needed to give him some space. I grabbed my clipboard and headed for the door. Then I had an idea. Just before I opened the door, I turned around and said to him, "Percy, I think you should know that I feel the same way about you."

Before I could make it out the door, Percy gently pulled me back inside. "Whoa." he began. "You know how I feel about you?" "I heard every word, remember?" I replied. Percy said, "So then when you say you feel the same way about me, you mean –" "Yes." I cut him off. "I have feelings for you, too."

After a pause, Percy said, "These things are always harder than they have to be." "Yeah, tell me about it." I answered. Then, grabbing the front of his undershirt, I yanked him forward and pressed my lips to his.

Percy responded eagerly and we kissed again…and again…and again. His fingers gripped my waist as I ran my hands through his hair. He, as expected, tasted of the salty ocean air.

Soon after we pulled away to breathe, Percy said, "I think we should get back to packing." "Good idea." I answered. So we finished packing and tidying up the Neptune cabin. Then I left, but not before Percy stole another kiss.

I went and helped a few other people pack, then got in one last practice with Gwen. Dinner was unusually quiet, even with the extra campers. I suppose everyone was pondering the fact that this was our last shred of normalcy before plunging headfirst into this war. With food in our stomachs and war in our heads, we turned in when the moon rose.

Early the next morning, at the crack of dawn to be exact, Lupa and Chiron woke us up. Well, they woke the Roman campers up. They attempted to wake the Greek kids up, but only managed to drag them out of bed. They looked like zombies; it was entertaining to see them eat breakfast.

The Romans, on the other hand, ate quickly and did some last minute cleaning. We tidied up every area of the camp so as to leave it in pristine condition for our return.

If we ever returned.

Around 8am we had a brief meeting for some final instructions. Ship assignments, final parting words, etc. After the meeting we boarded the Argo II. Once everyone was situated, we set sail. In the air. Yes, we flew east toward Europe with our sights set on that little island between Greece and Italy.

The trip took us a total of 60 hours. We would've gotten there faster if we hadn't had to make an emergency landing in D.C. Apparently there were some minor technical difficulties; I never got the full details the Minerva and Athena cabins were too busy taking supply inventory and performing other organizational duties.

Finally we made it to that secluded little island. Upon exiting the ship we found that the island was just a big mass of trees and shrubs. We definitely had our work cut out for us.

**3 months later**

It has been a week since the island's camp facilities were officially finished and operational. The manual labor has ended and the battle training begun.

Day and night we have drills preparing us for the war with Gaea and her army. When that time comes, the Romans will travel to Rome, Italy to fight the war from there. The Greeks will go to Athens, Greece to do likewise. The nine included in the prophecy – Percy, Piper, Annabeth, Nico, Maddie, Jason, Reyna, Leo, and myself – will set off to, well, fulfill our destiny, ever how cliché it sounds.

Until then, we train…

…and wait.

**Bwahaha! It's the end. And yes, I intended to only go this far from the beginning. **

**If you have any questions, comment or pm me and I will get back to you.**

**Within the next few months, be on the lookout for a sequel to this story…and I'll go ahead and tell you know that it's gonna be a crossover! :)**

**Until next time, my dears…**


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